Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks Defends Happy, Child-Free Marriage

If Mad Men teaches you one thing, it’s to seriously think about having children. (Betty Draper, we’re looking at you.) One star who’s given the parenting question a good long think: red-hot redhead Christina Hendricks.

The 39-year-old actress has been married to husband Geoffrey Arend since 2009, so can we expect any wee ones to join the couple anytime soon now that Mad Men is drawing to a close? Don’t bet the agency on it.

Speaking with The Guardian, Christina says she and Geoffrey had “a million conversations” before they got hitched about whether or not to have children. “I mean, they [kids] are a lot of work,” she explains. As for if she’s ever wanted to be a mother, Christina says, “I think in my mid-20s I did because I was moving around a lot and didn’t have that sense of community, of being rooted.”

Plenty of people have been shocked by Christina and Geoffrey’s decision, a response she says though she doesn’t quite get. “I know plenty of people who don’t have children, and I also get a lot of people who say, ‘Thank you for speaking out. My family doesn’t understand why I don’t want kids.’”